For the " Childhood Memories" (Coach Bags) series, it was created for my MFA graduate exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was developed along my research exploring the relationship between fine artists and fashion after World War II. While studying how artists have historically moved between the worlds of fashion and fine art, I began thinking about unconventional surfaces and how fashion objects themselves could become a canvas.
I chose Coach handbags as my painting surface not because of the brand itself, but because of the personal connection to my last name, Coach. Using the bags allowed me to merge identity, fashion, and painting while transforming a familiar object into a site for storytelling.
The imagery painted onto the bags reflects memories from my childhood which includes me standing at the bus stop for school, double-dutching with my friends, practicing ballet, going to church, and other significant everyday memories that shaped who I am. These scenes reference the cultural experiences and environments that surrounded me growing up, while also reconnecting me with the younger version of myself who dreamed of becoming an artist.
By painting these memories onto Coach bags, the work becomes personal and conceptual. The bags function as a canvas that links my research of fashion and art with my own identity, using my last name as a bridge between childhood memory, cultural experience, and artistic practice. 
Natural Hairstyles, Jan 2025
Childhood Memories ... Standing at the Bus Stop, December 2024
Childhood Memories As A Ballerina, Jan 2025
Childhood Memories... Double-Dutching Outside, April 2025